At the Loud house, a particular member of the family walked down the hallway towards the bedroom of the twin sisters, Lana and Lola Loud. This person was none other than Lucy, who took a deep breath before she stopped right in front of the door and knocked three times, before Lola answered the door.
"H-Hi, Lola," the poet nervously greeted. "Is Lana in your room?"
"Nah, she's actually right next to you," Lola casually answered.
The poet turned around just in time for Lana to arrive, causing her to jump up and back away into the wall nearby. And as the poet clutched her chest and took a deep breath, Lana turned to her twin and asked, "What's going on?"
"Nope, you came at the perfect time. Seriously, seeing Lucy be the one scared for once is so satisfying," Lola chuckled. "By the way, she needs your help for something, go see if you can help her for whatever she needs."
Lola closed the door, and Lana walked to the still-startled poet with a friendly "what do you need?" look. Then, once she calmed down, Lucy glanced at her papers and explained:
"Hi Lana, I got some poems I'd like to bury as deep into the ground as possible. I just can't stand seeing these... things out in the open, where anybody could read them. They're just... terrible..."
Lana flinched and took a step back. "Wow, if you could tell they were terrible right from the start, then they definitely should be buried away."
Lucy winced and audibly gasped, shivering as her plumber sister quickly added, "S-Sorry, I forgot that you're a bit sensitive when it comes to people's opinions on your poems."
"No, don't worry, I-I-It's alright!" Lucy answered, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "I completely agree with your opinion. Anyhow, could you help me find a good burying spot?"
"Hey, if it's for a good cause, I'll do it," Lana shrugged, getting a smile from the poet in return. "So, before I forget to ask, what sort of burying ground are you looking for?"
"Oh, uh, it doesn't really matter as long as you can dig the spot fairly deep. You know, to make sure it's hard for people to find it," Lucy answered. "Although, if possible, can you make sure there aren't any Indian corpses in it? I mean, I know they're dead, but I wanna make sure my bad poetry doesn't anger them or something."
Lana chuckled. "Sure, I'll be wary of Indian burial grounds."
Some ground searching later...
The animal lover found a spot that was deemed good enough to hide the horrendous poetry: It was on a tree in the middle of the public park, one that had a lot less leaves than the other trees, suggesting it was whitering.
"This one's perfect, but it needs one last touch in order to make sure people don't dig it for whatever reason," Lucy said, only to search her pockets and sheepishly look at her sister. "Lana, you wouldn't so happen to have brought a stake or knife or something that can be used for carving?"
"Of course not, why would I do that?" Lana answered, only to take out a toolbox from her back. "Specially when I can just bring my whole toolbox! After all, It's better to bring something that can hold multiple things over one specific thing!"
Then the plumber shivered, while keeping her smile intact. "That's a lesson I learned the hard way."
The plumber took out an object with a pointy end and handed it to the emo, who promptly walked to the tree's trunk and carved something in it. Once she finished, Lana walked closer to see it read "Stay away! For real!" in bold letters.
"Was the exclamation point really necessary?" Lana asked, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.
"You never know if people will obey creepy writings in tree trunks, so I had to make sure the message sent was clear," Lucy answered before handing back the object and focusing on her poems. "Now, let's bury these atrocious writing before-"
Suddenly, the wind blew so hard, all of Lucy's papers flew up in the skies, narrowly dodging the birds in the few seconds it took the emo to realize what just happened.
"Oh, dang it, I should've known something like this would happen," Lucy went to the tree and tried to climb it. "Quick, Lana, help me get the poems back before the birds read them! They don't deserve the trauma!"
"Okay, now I legitimately question if you're taking this seriously: I mean, can birds even read?" Lana scoffed just before a poem fell on her head. "Oh hey, one of them came down. I wonder what's so bad about it that you're worried birds will end up reading it."
It took another couple of seconds for Lucy to realize Lana was holding one of her poems, causing her to fall off the tree and hit the ground. She then got up and dusted herself as Lana's smile slowly turned into a frown. A confused frown.
"Lana, please, stop before you do something you'll regret!" Lucy exclaimed, actually sounding emotional for once. "Those poems are just like me: Dark, disturbing, confusing, and just really difficult to figure out! You have to stop reading it before you-"
Lana promptly read out loud:
When you die, you must not fear,
She'll make your worries disappear,
For as long as you remain by her side,
She proves to be a capable guide.
Lana looked at Lucy, who blushed and scratched the back of her head, "Okay, so that poem probably wasn't as bad as I though it would be, but the other poems-"
Then came the next poem, which Lana read out loud:
Like the moonlight, her eyes shine,
Showing her connection to the earth is almost divine.
And without hesitation, without debate,
She helps people reach the afterlife's gate.
Lana once again turned back to Lucy, this time looking more confused rather than shocked.
"Lucy, these poems are neither dark enough to block out the sun, or creepy enough to wake the dead from their sleep. At least, by your standards. And going by how your poetry tends to be, those are things you usually go for," Lana replied, folding her arms as she added, "So, I need to ask, why would you want these poems buried?"
The emo flinched and twiddled her fingers as she looked elsewhere. "Oh... um... w-well-"
"Don't lie to me, Lucy!" Lana sternly reminded. "You know how much I hate it when people lie to me!"
"It's just that..." the emo poet took a deep breath before confessing, "I envy your connection with the earth, alright?!"
Naturally, the tomboy plumber had no idea what she was talking about. "Wait, what?"
"You're right, envy isn't the right word to use, specially with how... happy, my poem sounded," Lucy folded her arms behind her back and looked away, blushing as she said, "I... admire, your connection to the earth."
"I still have no idea what you're talking about," Lana folded her arms. "Or even how this fits with the poems and the search for an appropriate burying place, for that matter."
Lucy took a deep breath and clutched her stomach as she explained herself:
"I'm two years older than you, Lana. Usually, when there's admiration between siblings in a family, it's the younger sibling that admires the older sibling. Whether it's because of what they can do, what their personality's like, what they've done for them... the younger one holds an admiration for them, but it's never the older sibling who admires the younger sibling. At least, not as far as I know."
Lana walked closer to her emo sister and rubbed her shoulder to comfort her.
"So, when I started to... like, how close you seemed to be with the earth, how I started to admire how easily you seemed to become one with the animals and the ground, I felt... I don't even know, but I didn't like the feeling. I mean, being someone who likes the occult and all the gothic stuff, I never really thought I would give some thought about somebody who's usually with the ground, getting dirty and what not."
Lucy sat down and put a hand on her cheek as the wind started blowing again, though this time, it only seemed to make the girls' hair move, rather than send the poems away.
"But then, I thought about it: When people die, they usually get buried. And even if they don't get buried, their corpses decompose into dust and ashes, at least that's what the famous phrase implies. And then they decompose, they go to the ground, and when that's done, they go to the afterlife. And that was when I realized: The earth that you dig into every day, and the one where people are buried... they're the bridge of life and death. After all, why else would people bury a dead body?"
"'Cause if it's left outside to decompose, it's gonna look really ugly and smell really bad?" Lana casually suggested with a shrug.
Lucy actually snickered at the statement, and she added in a cheerful tone, "Dang it, Lana, I'm trying to sound deep here!"
"Sorry," the plumber giggled. "I couldn't help it."
A short silence fell between the pair as they failed to think of something to talk about. However, it was eventually shattered when Lana asked, "Would you like me to teach you how to get "closer to the earth" as you say?"
"Gasp, are you serious?" Lucy asked in surprise.
"I don't wanna do it today, since I need to calm down from this revelation," Lana brushed her older sister's hair. "But tomorrow, if you're not busy, I could teach you how to get "closer to the earth" as you say, if you want."
With little hesitation, Lucy smiled and answered, "I'd love to."
The sisters hugged, and the wind blew even harder, this time sending the leftover poem pieces in the air.
"One little pointer, though, you may need to get used to letting your nails grow a little bit big at times," the mud lover suddenly suggested. "I'm no expert, but it's easier to dig with your hands when your nails aren't as thin as Lola's attempts at being nice."
Lucy chuckled, and the shredded poem pieces fell on the ground around the duo, forming the shape of a heart.